Sunday, September 2, 2007

Still focussed on product

I had an interesting conversation over the weekend with a senior executive from a large multinational. This guy is one smart cookie. Any communication or change management professional working for him had better know what he or she is doing – because this guy can see through the bullshit.

Until very recently his organization operated under a PR-style model for internal communications. Not surprisingly it didn’t work. This savvy exec was quite clear that superficial internal communication - driven by product – was not good enough to take his company into the future.
Actually it’s not good enough for any organization.

That’s not to say that communication products like newsletters, podcasts and web sites don’t play an important part in the communication mix. However, the role of manager as communicator is, I would argue, pivotal. And if that is the case, then the role of the communications professional is to facilitate the conversation and develop the process and tools to support it.

Why are communicators still focused on product even when their execs are looking for something else? I’d be interested to hear your views.

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